Highest ever ticket sales for Socialism event

Socialism 2017

Saturday 11&12 November

Institute of Education, Bedford Way, WC1H 0AL

Socialism on 11 & 12 November 2017 is an annual event hosted by the Socialist Party, formerly Militant. It will be attended by over 1,000 students, trade unionists, Corbynistas, socialists and those who are socialist-curious.

Socialism 2017 organiser Sarah Sachs-Eldridge says:

"This will be our biggest ever Socialism event. It reflects the growing interest in an alternative to the cuts and crisis of capitalism.

"People want to talk about socialism - what it is, is it possible. More students will attend this year.

"More activists fighting for refugee rights will attend. We have a number of key trade union fighters - from the strikes at McDonalds, Birmingham bins, against Driver Only trains, and more."

The key themes of this year's event are definitely attracting people:

How can we make Jeremy Corbyn's manifesto policies real now - from free education to rail nationalisation

The centenary of the Russian Revolution - people look at the Paradise Papers, the parliamentary scandals and they are sickened by the rotten capitalist elite wallowing in wealth while meting out austerity. In October 1917 the working class took the power and started to transform society and in today's world that is an extremely attractive idea!

Young Socialists - young people are seeing their futures trampled underfoot but the general election showed that they are ready to resist.

Internationalism - from the fight against repression in Catalonia to the fight against Trump in the US to the fight for abortion rights in Ireland, international struggles and solidarity will be a major part of the discussions with speakers from the socialist movement attending from Spain, the US, Portugal, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, France, Austria.

With speakers:

Kshama Sawant

A 2 September Guardian article about the growing interest in socialist ideas in the US said: "There are few socialists elected to public office in the US today.

"The most prominent is Kshama Sawant of the Socialist Alternative party, who won a seat on Seattle's city council in 2013 and drove through an increase in the city's minimum wage to $15 an hour.

"She was re-elected two years ago promising a tax on the rich in a state with no income tax. In July, the city council unanimously passed a 2.25% city tax on people earning more than $250,000 a year."

Last year Kshama rose to prominence with her call for Bernie Sanders to run as an independent candidate against the racist bigot Trump and the defender of Wall Street Hillary Clinton.

Kshama is a member of Socialist Alternative.

Ian Mearns

Ian Mearns MP is a Corbyn supporter. He is the leader of the RMT parliamentary group.

Peter Taaffe

Peter is the general secretary of the Socialist Party. Before that he was the editor of Militant, famous for leading the successful mass campaign that brought down the poll tax and Margaret Thatcher.

His recently published book, From Militant to the Socialist Party, deals with the Blairite takeover of the Labour Party.

Juan Ignacio Ramos

Juan Ignacio is the general secretary of Izquierda Revolucionaria, the sister party of the Socialist Party in the Spanish state.

Last July Izquierda Revolucionaria in the Spanish state, Mexico and Venezuela re-unified with the Committee for a Workers' International, the socialist world organisation to which the Socialist Party is affiliated.

Juan Ignacio and IR members in Catalonia have been to the forefront of the struggle for a Catalan socialist republic.

Chris Baugh

Chris is the assistant general secretary of the PCS civil service union and is a determined trade union activist who, as well as playing a key role in a number of disputes such as the National Gallery campaign, has also specialised in making environmental issues trade union issues and many other issues.

Isai Priya

Isai is an activist with Tamil Solidarity and has been working closely with the new Refugee Rights Campaign.

Isai will be launching a new campaign to fight for the right to work of refugees and asylum seekers which is supported by Tamil Solidarity, the TGTE and the Socialist Party.